Iconic Punk Venue ABC No Rio Will Be Demolished
Legendary New York City art center ABC No Rio will be shuttering its doors until a new building is erected, The New York Times reports. The space has been in a brick tenement on the Lower East Side since 1980.
ABC No Rio was known for its weekly punk/hardcore shows after 1989. The shows were designed to prevent the violence and prejudice that was pervasive at popular punk venues such as CBGB. No Rio was also the site of one of the largest zine libraries in the U.S., documenting the music and culture of the eighties and nineties.
The venue will officially close this June with demolition occurring by fall. Paul Castrucci, who will serve as the architect for the new center, told The New York Times that the space would become “one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the city.”
The building’s final art shows are scheduled to launch on June 10th. An exhibit called “InFinite Futures” will showcase artistic visions of what ABC No Rio could looks like up to 500 years in the future while another exhibit will highlight the history of the space.
For now, the collective will “go into exile,” with the famed zine library being relocated to a LES community center called Clemente Soto Vélez while the weekly Saturday afternoon punk shows will shift to Silent Barn in Brooklyn in July.